Olympia-2015

THE LANE PARKER – MACCLESFIELD COPY OF AN IMPORTANT ITALIANTREATISE ON CAVALRY78. MELZO, Lodovico. Regole militari sopra il governo e servitio particolaredella cavalleria. Antwerp: Gioachimo Trognaesio, 1611.Folio, pp. [10], 221, [3], [2 (blank l.)]; engraved additional title and 16 illustrationsprinted on 10 double-page and 5 double-page folding engraved plates; occasionallight browning and unobtrusive light damp-marking, additional title very slightlytrimmed at fore-edge and with small marginal repair, very small wormhole in earlyquires; overall a very good copy in eighteenth-century tree calf, spine gilt incompartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, all edges yellow; provenance:engraved armorial bookplate of George Lane Parker (1724-1791) to frontpastedown; engraved armorial bookplate of the Earls of Macclesfield, to front freeendpaper, with blindstamp on first two leaves. £5000First edition of a treatise on the conduct and service of cavalry by Lodovico Melzo,lieutenant-general of the Spanish cavalry in the Low Countries at the Truce of1609. Insisting that the cavalry should be considered independently of the othermilitary branches, Melzo draws on his experiences in the Netherlands to advance asystem intended to enlarge the functions of this body and increase its effectiveness.He describes the three different types of mounted soldier – the arquebusier, thelancer and the corselet (each illustrated with his weapons) – and discusses thedifferent roles of the cavalry from its function in battle to its duty in scouting andintelligence. However, his main focus is on the use of cavalry in irregular warfare,for which he advocates the use of small, independent cavalry formations led byintelligent officers with the skill to act decisively.George Lane Parker was commissioned into the 1st Foot Guards in 1749 as alieutenant, became colonel of the 20th Foot in 1773 and rose to the rank oflieutenant-general in 1777.79. MÉRY, Joseph, illustrated by, Auguste Nicolas BERTSCH and Camilled’ARNAUD, photographers, after Jean-Louis HAMON, artist. Les vierges deLesbos. Poème antique. Dessins par L. Hamon. Photographiées par Bertsch etArnaud. Paris, Georges Bell, 1858.4to, pp. 24 + 3 plates of salt print photographsafter signed paintings by Hamon; in good, cleancondition with only a few small ink stains tomargins, plates foxed due to paper stock, notaffecting prints; in plain printed covers, somerubs and marks, crease to upper cover; signed byBell on verso of half-title. £950Rare first illustrated edition, one of only threehundred copies, signed by the editor andfriend of the author, Georges Bell. The firstedition, unillustrated, was published togetherwith Méry’s Nuit lesbienne and, according toMonselet (Catalogue … d’une jolie collection de